Titanfall

The team that was originally behind Call of Duty? Check. Next-gen graphics and fluid multiplayer? Sold. Giant robots that rain down from the sky? No brainer. "Narrative multiplayer?" I wasn't sold, until I played Titanfall for myself.

Today at Gamescom 2013, I played two Titanfall matches that evolved very differently. The maps were the same, the staging was identical, but the feel of each was unique. In the first game, my team barely lost. In the second, we won by a landslide. Titanfall doesn't have multiplayer maps; it has story arcs that can be replayed over and over with different conclusions.

At the outset, we're shown a captured pilot from the opposite side of the war. It's our job to cover the extraction and hold off the opposing forces. My five human allies, along with a number of AI-controlled grunts (giving the battle a more frenetic, weighty atmosphere) begin our press forward to establish a foothold on the map.

Throughout the first match, the voiceovers offer pep talks, letting us know that we're holding them off, but still losing. We get updates on the prisoner transport's movements. Along the way, new moments in the pitched fight are introduced, as we're warned of an incoming ship and heavier forces. This coincides with more Titans joining the battle as the countdown "build timer" expires. When we lost, our superiors voiced their unhappiness about losing the city, but because it was so close, we managed to get the prisoner out of the city.

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